October 2014 Blog Posts (14)

This morning I'm awakened early by this week's featured author. It's one of my friends from the weekly writers' group I attend in Knoxville. Into the transporter we go and I set the destination controls and before we take off, she pushes a button on the side of the console, one I've never seen…

I posted the idea for this blog on Facebook wanting some comments and asking if other authors had experienced rejection. My thanks to David Schlosser and Bob Dunbar who responded with an example each. I can't make up this stuff so I'll let them tell their short stories in their own words:…

I just finished my first book and sent the manuscript to my publisher. I'm still not very positive about how my work gets distributed to the public. I know he told me that 90% of getting it marketed would be my responsibility. Fine. And he would set up Internet sites so future readers can download the book. Okay. But, what about paper sales? How do you go about getting the distributed throughout the nation. Do you contract a warehouse? If I order, say 50 paper backs and 30 hard covers, do I…

My first rejection came from a rude secretary in the Quad Cities when I was driving the route Mallory took in Beta. I stopped at a plant that processed meat gelatin. (Yeah, sounds disgusting to me, too) When I asked the secretary if there was a PR person available she told me one didn't exist. When I asked her who might help me, she said he wasn't available. I gave her my name and contact…

I'm very adamant on the Internet and elsewhere that I don't believe in the notorious “writers block.” Most former journalists and newspaper people will agree with me. We couldn't couldn't look up at the editor in despair and whine, “I don't know, sir. The words just aren't coming to me right now.” That doesn't fly when there are column inches to fill and lay-out people impatiently tapping their toes. Writers block = pink…

I thought about this topic several weeks ago when outlining a chapter to put at the beginning of Mallory Petersen's next adventure, Delta. In the story she meets a classmate about halfway through the story. When I wrote the first draft, I thought the scene worked, but after reading it to a critique group, and discussing it with a friend, I decided I needed to introduce the classmate earlier…

Like all other aspiring writers, I need help to improve my skills. I value other writer's opinions and would benefit greatly from those who have a lot more experience than I do. Since no one can write in a vacuum, I have joined this community to find such help. Other writers can help me improve in ways that I can't myself. Thanks.

I wanted to write this on one of the reviews I've done on my other blog, braytonsbookbuzz.wordpress.com but decided instead to write this up as a regular blog. One of the reasons I chose to do it here instead of there is because I initially thought I'd write this at the beginning of one review and it might seem like I was lambasting the author, which, essentially, I am. I could have written up a separate…